Newly sworn-in US President Donald Trump announced his intention to declare a ‘national energy emergency’ to ensure the country becomes self-sufficient in oil and gas production while reducing expenses for American consumers.
“The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices. And that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill,” he said at his inauguration in the US Capitol Rotunda after swearing-in as the 47th President.
Throughout his election campaign, Trump has consistently reiterated his ‘drill, baby, drill’ motto and has pledged to turn the US into the world’s top oil producer, achieve energy independence, and reduce consumers’ expenditures on gas at fuel stations.
“America will be a manufacturing nation again, and we will have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have, the largest amount of oil and gas that any country on earth has, and we are going to use it,” Trump said.
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Trump’s commitment to declare an emergency is merely one of several measures he is anticipated to implement in order to enhance the US’s oil, gas, and power sectors while hindering his predecessor Joe Biden’s initiatives to promote electric vehicle manufacturing.
When Biden assumed office in 2021, he vowed to reduce the US’s reliance on fossil fuels. Nonetheless, oil and gas output reached unprecedented levels after sanctions were imposed on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Trump has pledged to boost oil extraction on public lands, provide tax cuts for oil, gas, and coal producers, and fast-track the approval of natural gas pipelines.